Chapter 15 · The First Mark

The door explodes inward.

I hit the floor. Cain's already dragging me behind the overturned table, his hand locked around my wrist so tight I feel bone grinding. Rex is a blur—one second he's across the room, next he's got two hunters on the ground, their rifles skidding into the dark.

"How many?" Cain's voice is ice.

Aiden kicks the door shut. Won't hold. The frame's already cracked. "Eight outside. Maybe more in the trees."

"They tracked us." Rex wipes blood off his mouth. Not his blood. "Someone sold us out."

The curse wakes up. I feel it crawling under my skin, hot and sharp, like it knows what's coming. My wolf's trying to claw her way up, but the seal's still there, choking her down.

"Ivy." Cain's in my face now. His eyes are black. Full Alpha. "Stay behind me. Don't run."

"I'm not—"

Another explosion. The window this time. Glass everywhere. Someone's shooting, but it's not bullets—it's spelled rounds. I smell burnt sage and iron. Hunter tech. The kind that punches through wolf healing and leaves you bleeding out in minutes.

Rex snarls. He's already shifting, bones cracking, his human shape shredding into something bigger and meaner.